Method of and apparatus for making scales



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METHOD 0F AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING' SCALES Filed Nov. l2, 1931 l5Sheets-Sheet l 7A. /Az

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METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING SCALES ft-I M), 1935. L. J KOC!2,923,596

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING vSCALES Filed Nov. l2, 1931 5Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented Dec. 10, 1935 UNl'i'D STATES PATENT OFFICEMETHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING SCALES Application November 12, 1931,Serial No. 574,584

17 Claims.

This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for making scales,and more particularly to a method of and apparatus for printing meterscales which conform to the individual characteristics of the instrumentwith which they are to be used.

Objects of the invention are to provide an accurate and efcient methodof and apparatus for making scales.

Experience has shown that it is practically impossible to constructsimilar meters with such a degree of accuracy that they will possessidentical characteristics and, therefore, it is necessary to make anindividual scale for each meter. The same diculty exists when a meter isrepaired. It is found that usually a new scale must be made for therepaired meter.

The most commonly used method of making scales heretofore has been bydetermining the cardinal points of the scale and equally dividing thespaces between these points. This was usually done manually, although insome instances the lines between cardinal points were made by machineswhich had to be set to equally divide the lines between any two points.

In one embodiment of the present invention by which the method may bepracticed, means are provided for continuously printing a graduatedscale without resetting at cardinal points and the divisions betweencardinal points follow a naturall spacing approximating closely thecharacteristics of the meter for which the scale is intended.

A complete understanding of the invention may be had by reference to thefollowing description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which Fig. l represents a graph illustrating certainprinciples involved in the invention;

Fig. 2 is a detailed View of a typical meter scale;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of an apparatus embodying the invention;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional View taken online i-i ofFig. 3;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary plan View of a portion of theapparatus, including a graduated rod and slider;

Fig. 6 is a sectional View taken on line 6 6 of Fig. 5;

Fig. '7 is an enlarged sectional View taken on line 'l--l of Fig. 3;

Fig. 8 is an enlarged detail View of the printing device;

Fig. 9 is a side View of the device shown in Fig. 8 with parts brokenaway to illustrate the attachment of the inking rollers;

Fig. 10 is a sectional view taken on line IU--I of Fig. 8;

Fig. ll is a sectional' View taken on line lI-ll of Fig. 8; and

a multiple thereof, is passed through the meter and the amount ofdeilection of the pointer is noted to obtain the first cardinal point l5of the graph. A current of two amperes or a multiple thereof is thenpassed through the meter and the deflection is again noted to obtain thesecond cardinal point I6. The same procedure is then followed to obtainthe cardinal points l1 and I8.

If the cardinal points are connected by straight lines I9, a verticalprojection of equal increments of current will give an equal spacing ofdivision lines between the cardinal points, as shown in scale 2 l.However, if a larger number of cardinal points are taken, it will befound that the line connecting the present cardinal points will mostlikely not be a straight line but will follow a curve such as 22. Ii nowvertical projections are taken of equal increments of current on thecurved line, a scale Z3 will be produced in which the division linesbetween the cardinal points are not equally spaced but represent anatural or true division, which approximates cl-osely the scale whichwould have been produced if an innite number of cardinal points had beenplotted.

The apparatus of this invention is designed to automatically produce ameter scale of the type shown at 23 and comprises a base 2@ upon whichthe apparatus is mounted. Movably mounted upon the base is a rack 25having a downwardly extending projection 25 slidably engaging a rail 452l of substantially circular cross-section. A second downwardlyextending projection 28 slidably engages a rail 29. Underneath the rackis a screw 3| rotatably journaled in bearings 32 mounted on the base.Slidably secured to the lower side of the rack is a bar Si) carrying aconcave projection 4G, which engages the screw 3l. The end of bar 3i] isengaged by an eccentric 33 provided with a handle 34 by means of whichthe projection 40 may be engaged with or dis- 55 engaged from screw 3|.4It will be seen that when the projection 40 engages screw 3|, a rotationof the screw will move the rack longitudinally on the base.'V Y

The upper face of the rack is provided with a plurality of transversedove-tail grooves 35 in which adjusters or spacers 36 are slidablypositioned. Each spacer consistsV of a wedge'shaped block fitted intothe dove-tail groove, a thumb screw 31 for locking the block in positionand a Y pivotally mounted Ypin 38 having a slot in its upper end forreceiving a resilient member 39 of steel or other suitable resilientYmaterial. v'I'his resilient-member is formed into a curve based uponthe'cardinal points of the meter, as will be described later.

Above rack 25 is a rod 4| rigidly supported by standards 42. This rod isprovided with graduated marks and carries a slider 43 whichsubstantiallyrencloses the rod, except for a V-shaped longitudinal slot44 in its upper face, through which the graduations on the rod may beseen. The rear side of the slider is provided with a thumb screw 45 bymeans of which the slider may be secured in iixed position. The slider43 Y Y has a forwardly projecting arm 46rcarrying a downwardlyprojecting pinV 41, which engages behind the curved resilient member 39.Between arm 46 and a projection 48, the slider carries a pin 49 Vonwhich a block 5| is slidably mounted. This block has an internallythreaded Vprojection 52 rcooperating with a thumb screw 53 pro-v jectingthrough arm 46 for adjusting the position of block 5| relative to theslider. Attached Yto the block 5| of the slider is a flexible strap 54which extendsaround a rotatable member 55 mounted on the base andissecured to a projection V56 on the rotatable member.

Therrotatable memberralso has a'chain 51 ex-V tending partially aroundits periphery, to which a weight 58 is attached, tending to normallyrotate the rotatablev member in aclockwise direction. f Y

It will be seen that asthe rack 25 is moved forwardly,'as viewed in Fig.3, slider 43 will be drawn to the right by the rotatable member adistance determined by the curvature of resilient member'39; thus Vifthe screw 3| were rotated intermittently to move the rack forwardly in nequal steps, the rotatable member 55 would also rotateintermittently'but not in equal steps, since Y the amount of rotation ofthe rotatable member will depend upon the curvature of'resilient member39.

Intermittent Vmovement isk imparted to theV screw 3|A by means of Genevamovement' 6|, Vthe intermittent gear 62 of which YisY attached to theunit. Y Shaft 64 carries a bevel gear 65 meshingYV with a second 'bevelgear onshaft 66.- The oppo'lsite end of shaft' 66Ycarries Va Ysecondbevel gear 61Y meshing with a bevel gearl 68 on a shaft 69. Shaft 69 hasa worm gear 1| actuated by a wor '12 carriedaby the shaft of motor 13. t-:i.The printing apparatus isi-mounted upon a left, as Viewed in Fig.ll. Vspring |01 secured thereto which extends into a standard 15, whichcarries two forwardly extending rods 16.V A'slidable block 11 is mountedon these rods and has a slot 18 interconnecting the rod receivingapertures 19. Extending vertically through the block is a screw 8| whichhas a lever 82 for clamping the block -to the rods in any desiredposition. The block 11 is provided with a downwardlyextending portion 83having two plates 84 and 85 secured to the front face thereof torprovide the vertical dove-tail groove 86, in which a 'plunger 81 isvertically reciprocable. The plunger has a pin 88 secured thereto whichis connected through a connecting rod 89 to an Y eccentric 9|. Eccentric9| is carried by shaft 69 and has a key 92 which is slidable in alongitudinal slot on shaft 69 so that the eccentric may readily beshifted longitudinally on the shaft but rotatestherewith. Plunger 81 isprovided with a forwardly projecting shaft 93 upon which a 'printingroller 94 is rotatably supported. The printing roller has on itsperiphery |9 lines for Vmarking the divisions of the Scale, the first ofwhich is a long line followed by four short lines and a fifth line ofintermediate length for printing a scale; such asshown in Fig. 2.

In order to rotate' the printing roller upon reciprocation of theplunger, a cam is povitally mounted upon plate 95. This cam 95 has ashoulder 96 which cooperates with a cam plate 91 on the plunger todisengage the cam from the cylinder. The lower end of the cam isprovided with an inward projection 96 adapted to engage teeth 99 on theprinting roller. During the upward movement of the plunger, cam plate9'! allows the cam 95 to be engaged with the roller by means of 4aspring |9| and during the downward movement of the plunger the cam 95causes the roller to rotate the distance of one line whereupon cam plate91 will disengage cam 95 from the roller and allow the roller tocontinue downwardly without rotation. In order to insure that thecylinder will 'be in` a xedA predetermined position when in printingcontactwith a blank scale on the rotatable member 55, a disc |92 isattached to the end of the printing roller which has a plurality of'semi-circular notches in its periphery and a plate |03 secured to theplunger has a complementary semi-circular notch. Extending throughthejplunger is a pin |94 having a tapered end adapted to engage thecirculaiaperture formed bythe semi-circular aperture in plate |63 andone of the semifcircular apertures of disc |92 to lock the printingcylinder in position. The opposite end of pin |94 has a head |95 and aspring |08 engages; this head and urges the pin to the The arm'88 alsohas a cut-out portion |68 and into the path of head |95. f Spring |91 ismade stronger than |96 so that when the plunger is in such a positionthat head |95 does not engage spring'll, the spring |96 will move thepin tothe left, as Viewed in Fig. 1l.Y However, when the plunger hasdescended to such an extent that the roller has been rotated to theproper position, head will engage spring |61, causing the pin |94 to bemoved to the right to lock the roller in position.

The printing roller is inked by means of a pair of rolls'lllfl and lil.Roll E99 is preferably made of steelY and roll i! i of Va compositionsuitable for vinking the printing rolls. The rolls |99 and are mountedonV an arm i l2 and the plate 83' has'a forwardlyy extending shaft H3over which the roller |99 extends.l The rolls may be Vrotated by meansof a thumb screvri i4 connected to the upper roll. The entire rollassembly is slidably mounted on shaft H3 and is retained thereon by aspring H5 which engages a groove on the end of shaft H6 of roller HI andthe spring at the same time tends to retain the roller l l l inengagement with the printing roller. The printing roller and inkingroller lll may be caused to positively rotate relative to each other byproviding knurled discs |26 at their ends held in engagement by springH5.

In order to rigidly support the rotatable member against the pressure ofthe printing roller, the pivot shaft li? of the rotatable member has aspider it mounted thereon, which carries a plurality of rings H9 forpositioning ball bearings iZl under the rotatable member.

The operation of the apparatus will now be described. In making a scalefor a meter, the cardinal points oi the meter are rst determined bypassing known currents of given values through the meter and noting theamount oi deiiection of the pointer of the meter for each current. Whenthe cardinal points have been found, the rack is disengaged from thescrew El to permit its free longitudinal movement, manually, oralternatively the rack may be adjusted in position by a handle I byremoving the Geneva gear 6 l. The slider lit is then set at zero and oneof the spacers 3S is adjusted so that the resilient member 3Q willengage the pin il of the slider. The rack is then withdrawn from the`slider and the slider is set to indicate the amount of deflection forthe iirst cardinal point. The rack is then again moved toward the sliderand f the resilient member 39 is adjusted so that the second spacer 36will cause the resilient member to engage the pin 4l.

This procedure is continued until a spacer has been placed in positionfor each cardinal point of the meter. In between the spacers the curvewill assume a natural curvature forming a curve of the resilient member,winch approximates ver ciosely the curve which would have been obtainedif infinite number oi cardinal points had been taken. After theresilient member has been formed into its desired curved form, theslider is moved to the left and the rack moved upwardly until the curveengages pin 4l of the slider. A blank scale is then placed on therotatable member and the rotation of the motor is started by the pushbutton switch L22.

The motel' causes the reciprccation of the printing rciler which haspreviously been set so as to print a line of maximum length first. Theposi- 1' tion of the rst line may be controlled by adjusting thumb screw53 on slider G3. The motor also causes an intermittent forward movementf the rack 25 due to the Geneva gear 6l. The gear trains for driving theGeneva movement and the printing roller are so chosen that the printingroller will be out of contact with the rotatable member during theadvance of the rack and will lrint a division en the sca-ie during thestationary period of the rack. It will be noted that while the rackadvances forwardly in equal steps the rotation of the rotatable member55 will be in unequal steps determined by the curvature of the resilientmember 39. It is evident that the Geneva gear may be interchanged forone which will cause a larger or smaller advance of the rack, dependingupon the number of cardinal points and accuracy desired in the printingscale.

Another method that may be followed in printing the scale is by what maybe'called a master scale method. A master scale is simply a scale inwhich the divisions are equal from one end of the scale to the other. Inmaking a scale by this method, the master scale is placed in the meterand pin holes are made on the scale at cardinal points. then clamped tothe rotatable member by the usual clamps 23. It will be seen that thisplaces the scale under the printing device and in order to make thescale more accessible a second projection l2@ is provided on therotatable member 55 to which the flexible strap 5A may be attached so asto bring the scale counter-clockwise into convenient position during thesetting of the apparatus. A hair-line index igt is then placed acrossthe radius of the rotatable member. This index has a pointed projectioni2? adapted to rest in a small depression in the center of the rotatablemember and the other end of the index is provided with a weight i?,which rests upon the base 2li and spaces the index slightly above 20 therotatable member. The slider 43 is now adjusted so that the zero pointof the scale falls under the hair-line of the index and the point oi thecurve is adjusted as in the previously described method. Slider 133 isthen moved so as 25 to cause the hair-line to fall over the firstcardinal point represented by a pin hole on the master scale and thecurve is again adjusted. This process is continued until the resilientmember has been adjusted for all of the cardinal points and 30.

after the resilient member has been correctly formed, the master scaleis replaced by a blank sc-ale and the blank scale is moved under theprinting roller by connecting strap 515 to projection 55 andthen printedin the same manner as described above.

It will be understood that the nature and embodiment of the inventionherein described and illustrated is merely a convenient and useful formof the invention and many changes and modifications may be made thereinwithout dep-arting from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. An apparatus for marking scales comprising a movable and formablecurve member, means 43 for moving said curve member in steps, arotatable member fcr supporting a blank scale, means for rotating saidrotatable member in steps determined by the curvature ci the curvemember,

and means for marking said scale at points 5ft spaced proportionately tothe steps of rotation of the rotatable member.

2. An apparatus for marking scales comprising a movable member having acurved outline, means for intermittently moving said member, a rotatablemember for supporting a blank scale, means for intermittently indexingsaid rotatable means an amount determined by the curvature of saidmember, and means for marking said scale at points on a fixed of theaxis of @9 rotation of said rotatable member.

3. An apparatus for marking scales comprising a rotatable member forsupporting a blank scale, a printing device having a rotatable printingcylinder, means for moving the cylinder into and 55 out of contact withthe rotatable member to print indicia on the scale, means for rotatingand locking the cylinder in angular position while out of contact withthe rotatable member, and means for intermittently rotating therotatable member while the cylinder is out of contact therewith.

4. An apparatus for marking scales comprising a movable rack, aplurality of spacers on said rack, a resilient member secured toandformed The master scale with the pin holes is 5 into a curve by saidspacers, a guide adapted to follow said curve upon movement of the rack,a

rotatable member for supporting a blank scale,

means for intermittently moving said rack, thereby causing intermittentmovement of said guide, means for transmitting the Vmovement of saidguide to the rotatable member, and means for marking indicia on saidvscalerwhile the rotatable member is at rest. f

5. An apparatus for automatically marking scales comprising a movablemember having a curved outline, means for intermittently moving saidmember, means for supporting a blank scale, means for intermittentlyVmoving said scale supporting means in response to the movement andcurvature of Vsaid curved member, and means for marking said scale atspaced points .determined by the amount of movement of the scalesupporting means.

6. An apparatus for automatically., marking scales comprisingV a curvedmember, a movable support therefor, a scalefadjacent the support, meansfor moving said support for adjusting the curved member on the supportrelative to said scale, a blank scale support, means for moving theblank scale support in response to movement of the curve support and inaccordance Vwith the curvature of the curved member, and means formarking the blank scale, the spacing of the marks being equal to themovement of the blank scale support.

'7. An apparatus for marking scales comprising a movable curve member,means for moving said curve member in steps, asupport for a blank scale,means for moving said support insteps determined by the curvature of thecurve member, and means for marking said scaleat Vpoints spacedproportionately to the steps of movement of said support.

8. An apparatus for marking Vscales comprising a movable support for ablank scale, a curve member and support therefor, means for moving thecurve support in adirection substantially perpendicular to the movementof the scale at the point to bemarked, and means for moving the scalesupport an amountdependent on the curvature of the curve member.

9. An apparatus for marking scales comprising a circular support for ablank scale, a curve member and support therefor, means for mov- Vingsaid Ycurve support in a direction perpendicular to a tangent of saidcircular support, a guide 'member and support therefor, means for movingthe curve support in a direction substantially perpendicular to themovement of the scale at the point vto be marked, means for moving thescale support an amount dependent-on the cur-Y vature of thev Vcurvemember, and means for marking said scale in accordance with the movementthereof 11. An apparatus for marking scales comprising a ycircularsupport for a, blank scale, a curve memberrand supporttherefor, meansfor moving 5 said curve support in a direction perpendicular to atangent of said circular support, a guide member engaging said curve ata point intersected by said tangent, means associated with said guidemember for moving said blank supl0 port in accordance with thecurvature'of said. curve member, and means for marking the scale inaccordance with its movement.

12. 'An' apparatus for marking scales comprising a curve support, a'curve supported thereon, 15 means for intermittently moving saidsupport in a straight line, a guide member movable transversely to saidsupport in accordance with the Vcurvature of said curve, a blank scalesupport, Y and means including Vsaid member for moving 20 said scalesupport in accordance with the curvature of said curve member.

Y. 13. An apparatus for marking scales compris- Ving a curve support, acurve supported thereon,

accordance with the curvature of said curve.

14. An apparatus for marking scales comprising a curve member, a supporttherefor, means for intermittently moving said support in predeterminedequal steps, a scale support, and means 35 for moving said scale supportin steps which are a function of the curvature of said'curve member.

15. An apparatus for marking scales comprising a curve member, a supporttherefor, means 40 for intermittently moving said support inpredetermined equal steps, means engageable with said curve member andmovable in accordance with the curvature thereof in a directiontransversely tothe direction of movement of said support, 45 and a scalesupport movable in response to the movement of said last mentionedmeans.

' 16. The method of marking a graduated scale, in which a marker andscale having relative movement are used, comprising moving a curved 50surface `in a direction transversely to the direction of saidfrelativemovement at the point to be marked, and causing a relative movement ofthe scale and marker in response thereto and proportional to the slopeof said curved surface. 55

17. An apparatus for marking a scale for a meter comprising a curvemember formable to represent a coordinate curve of the metercharacteristics, a blankV scale support, a marking device associatedtherewith, and means for moving said marking device relative to saidscale support y in accordance With the projection of the curvature ofsaid curve member on one of its coordinate axes.

' LUDVIK'JOSEPH KOCI. v 65

